Australian Muscle Car

Australian Muscle Car is a fresh, proudly Australian publication dedicated to preserving the legend of the unique ‘Australian made’ Ford vs Holden muscle car heritage. From 1960s classic Bathurst muscle to the super sophisticated Falcon and Commodore performance cars of the new millennium and everything in between.

Editor’s Induction Steve Normoyle

Australian Muscle Car

Lang Lang sold

McLaughlin’s third

Sign Sign of of the the times times

Thanks for the donation, officer

New Skaife book

Auction update

The foot was on the other shoe…

Pennies from Holden heaven

Team Work & Partnerships • Hare & Forbes Machineryhouse and Brad Jones Racing

Wally’s Words • TASMANIA – Beautiful one day, different the next!

Adventures with Brocky: tales from Peter Brock’s PR chief

Paul Newby

AMC BEST LETTER

Holden’s finest hour • Almost no one gave Holden any kind of chance of winning Bathurst in 1990. The motorsport media was quick to dismiss the VL Commodore as a lost cause, portraying the hapless Holden entrants as being reduced to battling amongst themselves for victory in the unofficial naturally-aspirated ‘Commodore class’, and playing no role in the outright contest. Those pundits did have a point, because in simple power to weight terms, the VL was comprehensively outgunned by its turbo opposition. It was also overwhelmingly outnumbered, with only three frontline VLs facing at least a dozen turbo Ford Sierra RS500s, plus the new all-wheel-drive twin-turbo Nissan GT-R. And yet by the end of the 1000km, those three VL Commodores were placed first, third and fifth. It was a magnificent and unexpected victory for Win Percy and Allan Grice and the Holden Racing Team, in what surely must be Holden’s finest hour on the Mountain.

Up in smoke • Prior to the 1990 Bathurst 1000 the Commodore VL ‘Walkinshaw’ was unfancied, unloved and almost completely unsuccessful. And yet the home-grown Aussie Holden V8 prevailed against the biggest, baddest turbo field ever. David Greenhalgh explains how it happened.

Redemption for the Walkinshaw

A bit of luck and the right brakes • As a specialist openwheeler race engineer with limited touring car experience, Wally Storey was something of a left-field choice as chassis engineer for the Holden Racing Team in 1990. But within eight months of taking on the job, Storey would play a critical role in orchestrating Holden’s shock Bathurst 1000 victory.

Too hot and bothered • AMC taps the recollections of two long-time Aussie motorsport figures for insight into why their respective teams, Nissan Motorsport and B&H Racing, came up short at Bathurst in 1990.

The last lap • The 1990 race would be the last Bathurst start for three former winners, three of the biggest names in Australian motorsport.

Retro Vision

Holden Torana GTR-X The one that got away • Hot on the heels of the futuristic Holden Hurricane concept car, the Torana GTR-X was conceived and designed in Australia as General Motors-Holden’s new halo production car. Boasting a Torana GTR XU-1 powertrain, the curvaceous GTR-X coupe received overwhelmingly positive reactions from the motoring media and public alike when unveiled mid 1970 and went achingly close to going into production before being axed. Half a century on, Australian MUSCLE CAR sat down with the man responsible for the GTR-X’s interior, Paul Beranger, one of Australia’s most successful automotive designers in a career spanning five decades. Beranger joined Holden in early 1968 at the age of 23, and eighteen months into the job was selected as part of the design team for what would become one of Australia’s most innovative, planned-production cars of all time. Here is his story about the one that got away.

The day Moffat gave KB the Mustang...